The topic of whether or not homework is worth doing has always been a debate among students and teachers. AS much as some students may not want to hear it, homework actually does help for many different reasons.

First, homework helps the students get a grasp of their current chapter or unit, it helps to make class time more efficient, and it helps kids manage their time outside of school.

Understanding a chapter in any subject is not going to be easy for everyone. In the class, the teachers try to teach what they can in 40 minutes. This may seem like a lot, but at times, it is barely enough time to teach a subject.

Say a lesson takes five class periods to teach. The teacher has roughly 200 minutes or 3 and 1/2 hours a week which is not a lot of time. Plus, having breaks, absences and other classes throughout the day, there requires time outside of those few hours.

When kids do their homework it makes their class time more efficient. During the 40 minute class, there is not enough time for the teacher to go around and help the students individually, so if the students do their homework and already know what they want to ask beforehand, it makes it so that the teacher can address the class as a whole.

This helps students learn how to not waste time, and the class will not drag on too much.

Homework helps kids to learn how to manage their time and concentrate. With all the distractions of today, it is hard for a high school student to get away from the television, video games, or just to get them to hang out with friends.

Having the responsibility to finish homework and getting a grade for it should encourage students enough to manage their time, work around their schedule, and plan according to their day-to-day work.  

Having said all this, homework does give students an advantage over ones who don’t do it, but what is not fair is when teachers give out big assignments constantly. Students have up to eight different classes a day.

Having a small amount of homework in each of those classes is already a lot of work, so having bigger assignments can be overwhelming and anxiety provoking to the students. Too many students sacrifice sleep to get work done — some only getting one or two hours of sleep in a night.

Homework does help a lot more than students are willing to admit. It does help them in their classes, and ultimately prepares them for the future.

It will help them manage time and order their responsibilities from most important to least important which is a very useful skill to possess. Although some teachers may give a little more homework than necessary, students should make an effort to complete it:  it will help them in the long run.